Dani attacks the counter with the rag and I take a deep breath and count silently to ten.
Despite the fact that my baking space is a complete wreck, now that Dani’s here and we’re getting along a little better, the day ahead doesn’t seem so bleak. She’s right—I can’t keep letting him do this to me. I already spent yesterday locked in my bedroom, crying over my father’s stupid blog, wasting my whole day off. Why? He has his own life now, a different life, and just because he tells the world whenever his girlfriend learns a new trick, that doesn’t mean I need to read about it. In fact, as soon as I get home, I’m unsubscribing from his stupid blog.
But then I might never hear anything from him….
“No. You know what? You’re right. Screw him.” I push out from the counter and march over to the coffeepot, ready for a fresh cup. “If anything, it just makes me want to nail that scholarship even more.” I cross back to the counter and sip my coffee, slightly burnt but nice and hot. “Anyway, enough of my lame family drama. How was Canada?”
“But …” Dani reaches for my hands across the counter, but she knows me well enough to realize the Dad conversation is over. “Fine. Canada was … it was okay. We got to dress up, take lots of pictures. Dad’s ensemble brought the house down.”
“Not surprised. Your dad blows. A mean trumpet, that is! Har!”
Dani laughs, and the tension between us melts a little more. “Never heard that one before, thanks.” She dries my big silver bowl and sets it back on the counter. “The city itself is pretty cool, too. They have a really rich history, and lots of culture, and—”
“You applying for citizenship?”
She smiles. “I’d make a kick-ass Canadienne.”
“As long as you don’t show me up in front of Madame Fromme with your new French accent.”
“That’s Quebec, not Toronto. N’est-ce pas?”
“N’est-ce whatever. Ferme ta bouche.”
“Ferme your bouche.” She laughs again. “So … did you get to have your date with Will?”
“Not really.” I wipe off the mixer base and change out the beaters for a fresh pair. “I snuck over to the party for a little while, but I couldn’t stay long.”
Dani sets a stack of napkins and a silverware bin on the counter. “Are you, like, hanging out with him now? Officially?”
“I … guess.” I shrug. “He kissed me at midnight. That’s something, right?” I laugh. “When I left, he totally brushed snow off my truck.”
“All that, just for a kiss? Damn.” She smirks and rolls a fork and spoon into a napkin without even looking, starting another set so fast that her hands blur. “Do you like him? I mean, like, like him?”
“I’m … I think … yeah. I do. Maybe.” I crack two eggs into a bowl and flip on the mixer. Dani narrows her eyes, but she doesn’t press the Will thing.
“Well,” she says over the mixer, “what about Frankie and those guys? Who all was there?”
“Everyone but Josh. All the usual Watonka people, plus, like, ten of Amir’s cousins and a bunch of people from City Honors.”
“Sounds like a good crowd.” She stacks the rolled silverware into a pyramid on her serving tray, not a single napkin corner out of place.
“Yeah. Like I said, I bailed early, so I don’t know how it ended up. Can you pass me that flour sifter?” I nod toward the rack of utensils over the sink and she grabs the one I need.
“Were there a lot of other girls there?” she asks. “Like any of the—”
“Can we not talk about the party right now?” I drop the sifter on the counter, louder than I mean to, and she flinches. “Sorry. I’m just really beat, and Mom wants me to make a bunch of extra Sabres cupcakes, and the birthday group ladies are coming for lunch, and I’m trying to break early so I can work on my routine. The competition is in a month, and I’m not even close.” I turn to grab the heavy cream from the small fridge next to the sink. “My triple/triple looks like a wounded seagull, and that’s supposed to be the best move in my program. Not to mention the fact that I just overdosed on cupcake batter.”
I turn back to the counter, but Dani and the silverware pyramid have vanished, the double doors swinging softly in their wake.
Two hours later Trick’s singing Lou Reed over the half-empty grill, Dani’s slicing oranges for plate garnishes, and I’m hand-icing my twenty-third consecutive blue-and-gold Sabres logo when my phone buzzes with a text from Wilclass="underline"
turn on channel 7—I’m on tv in 5 min!
“Your eyes about fell out of your head just then,” Dani says, not hiding the snark in her tone. “That your new man?”
“He’s not my new—forget it. Would you just come here?” I drag her into Mom’s office and flip on the television. The tail end of an Old Spice commercial fades out and Channel 7 News returns, Will’s old yearbook picture plastered up in the corner behind anchorwoman Marietta Swanson.
“Nice,” Dani says. “Now he’s a TV star, too? That’ll do wonders for his ego.”
“Shhh!” I reach over and raise the volume.
“Speaking of unprecedented comebacks,” Marietta says in her buttery newscaster’s voice, “Watonka High’s own varsity hockey team seems to be turning more than a few heads on the ice this season. After a ten-year losing streak, the Watonka Wolves are on a roll. Don Donaldson caught up with the team’s captain at Bluebird Park this morning to ask about the sudden turn of events. Don?”
The screen cuts to a bench behind the jogging path at the park. Will, sporting the fresh glow of physical exertion, smiles into the camera, Don Donaldson cheesing it up next to him in his bright blue Channel 7 parka.
“Thanks, Marietta,” Don says. “I’m here with Will Harper, Watonka High School student and captain of the Wolves varsity hockey team. Will, your team hit the ice this year with a vengeance, shaking off a record-breaking string of bad luck. What can you tell us about this incredible reversal?”
“Some days I can’t believe it myself,” Will says, amping up that megawatt smile for the viewers back home. “I think the guys have just really come together this year.”
“How do you explain the newfound teamwork?”
“Our secret weapon, of course.”
Don chuckles in that robotic newsman way. “Does this secret weapon have a name?”
“Now, Don, you know I can’t give away all our secrets.” Will cocks his head and winks. I don’t think Don realizes that Will is totally making fun of the whole “cool news guy” vibe.
“But I’ll tell you this much,” Will says. “I’ve been studying new techniques, working out on the ice with the guys, calling extra practices whenever I can. I also try to really motivate everyone, push them harder when they think they can’t do it anymore. We haven’t won every game, but we’re working on it. There’s no secret about a little hard work, Don.”
“No, there certainly isn’t, Will.” Don turns back to the camera and smiles. “Well, there it is, folks. Proof that a little hard work can go a long way, especially here in Watonka, New York. Back to you, Marietta.”
“Sounds like the Sabres could use a guy like Will Harper on the team, huh, Don?” Marietta laughs, co-anchors bubbling around her on cue. “Speaking of hitting the ice with a vengeance, let’s check in with Dusty Martin on traffic and weather. Dusty?”
I click off the television. “Speaking of hitting the ice with a vengeance, I better finish those cupcakes.”
Dani follows me back to the prep counter.
“Let me guess,” she says, keeping her voice out of Mom and Trick range. “You thought he’d give you a public thank-you on TV? Better yet, how about a bouquet of roses!”
“It’s not like that,” I whisper. “Will knows my mother doesn’t know about the Wolves stuff, and neither does the coach. He can’t just out me on television. Besides, he did mention me. He always calls me their secret weapon—it’s, like, our joke … thing … whatever.”